I Am Weak

Uncle Dayf finally caught his winter cold last night. Too much running around in the cold wearing a t-shirt, too much hanging around sick people and too many days with only 4 hours of sleep finally caught up with me. So now I've got the oogy, the drippy and the scratchy. I made a run to the store to get the usual stuff. Carton of OJ. Generic cold medicine. Chicken soup. Cough Drops. Ramen to kill the beasties in the back of my throat with boiling salty water and yummy noodles. I even got a bottle of Vitamin Water Defense to throw a little vitamin C and zinc shock and awe on the germs. I was good and didn't even get a single pack of baseball cards. Then I left the store and headed home. Wait... oh crap.

TEA!

I forgot the bloody tea! Just because I don't feel well doesn't mean I don't have to go to work and I need my caffiene. I'd just prefer the delivery method to be piping hot right now. I cussed myself and swung in the Wally World right down the street from my subdivision. I was hoping for some Tazo Awake tea, but they were out. Curses! I got a variety pack instead so I would at least get two bags of a caffeinated kick in the ass, then I could mellow out with some Zen. Even though there's absolutely nothing in the card aisle right now, I still wandered over there. There was a whole lotta nothin. Most of the same nothin that's been there since October. There really won't be anything new before Valentine's Day to be honest as they are usually at least two weeks behind the hobby releases. I still poked around though and took a look at abox of basketball cards hiding over in the Yu-Gi-Oh section. Then I found this:

Oh good grief, why did I come home with a repack box of entertainment cards?!? I just had an existential crisis over buying some Heritage and now I'm spending money on the crappiest of the crap? Really?? Why would I do such a thing? This is why:

This isn't a normal assorted junk repack box, the whole thing is all Lord of the Rings Masterpieces cards. They had three others there too: Some cartoon called The Kids Next Door, 2002 Operation Enduring Freedom and an old CCG called Legends of the Five Rings. This is a neat idea, the other Entertainment boxes had a bizzare mix of packs showing that no one in their right mind would want all of them. Stuff like a pack of X Files, N Sync, Enduring Freedom and Nickelodeon cards showing on the sides. Who wants all that crap? This here is like buying most of a retail box for quarter of the cost. Besides, they sell the plastic boxes the cards come in separately for five bucks anyway. I see these boxes as buying some storage and getting some junk wax for five dollars more. Even if they suck, it's just a five spot to rip some packs. I'm a Lord of the Rings fan so I couldn't resist. Here's some highlights from the first pack:

Yesssss my pressssiousssss...

The King of Arsty Fartsy

A scene from Sharky's new saturday morning cartoon series.

There's 140 cards in the box, and 90 cards in the set. It is extremely unlikely but entirely plausible that there's a complete set in there. Nah, this is Topps collation we're talking about. Still, why not? I get to rip a bunch of packs of cool stuff while I nurse this cold with cough syrup and scalding tea. Besides, seriously, there's nothing else interesting in the retail pack market right now. What would you rather have, five packs of Documentary or this? Upper Deck Icons? Piles of Updates and Highlights? The 2009 stuff better be out soon though or I fear I'm going to do something really stupid. I can't hold out much longer.